We tested the Vemuram Spiritone, the dual-channel Char signature drive, with a Gibson DG-335 into a tweed Fender Vibrolux, and in a comparison session with a single-coil Macmull S-Classic into a Morgan 1×12 against three Klon rivals, to establish whether it earns a place among Klon-derived overdrives. We found a coloured, harmonically dense, low- to medium-gain drive with superb dynamics, although its two channels are less independent than the format suggests.
The Vintage & Rare verdict
With four Klon rivals on the bench, we kept circling back to the Spiritone. Whatever we matched it against, its dynamic response and harmonic depth made it the pedal we wanted to keep playing. It will not do high gain, and its two channels share one gain structure, but neither stopped it becoming the drive we reached for first. Bought with our own money, tested on our own rig.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Dense, harmonically rich drive voice
- Superb dynamic response with just the right bite
- Equally convincing with humbuckers and single coils
- Preferred over the Centavo, the Archer, and the Nordvang No.1 in our comparisons
- Distinctive Vemuram tonal character
- Stacks superbly, verified with drives both before and after it
- Useful brighter second mode for leads
- Adjustable saturation and switchable buffer
- High construction and finish quality
Cons
- Large and heavy by modern pedalboard standards
- Expensive within a crowded Klon-derived market
- The two channels share gain and equalisation
- The B channel would benefit from an independent gain control
- The strongest SAT settings reduce clarity
- Tonally coloured, despite some descriptions suggesting neutrality
- Limited gain range when used alone
At a glance
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Transparent? | A word we are not going to use. Coloured voice, superb touch response |
| High gain? | No, low to medium gain alone |
| Good on its own? | Yes, within a low-gain ceiling |
| Best quality | Dynamic response |
| Main limitation | The B channel shares gain with the A channel |
| Stacking? | It stacked superbly in both directions |
| Worth it? | Yes, for players who want Vemuram’s harmonic voice |
Why we reached this verdict
We recommend the Spiritone to players who want a harmonically rich, Klon-flavoured drive for low-gain vintage work, but not to those seeking a compact pedal, a neutral overdrive, or high gain from a single box. Its strongest quality is a dynamic response that follows picking strength with real precision and delivers just the right amount of bite. Its main limitation is the B channel, whose single knob raises the level and gain together. Street prices sit around $540 in the US and €460 to €560 in Europe as of July 2026, with the spread reflecting sale against standard retail pricing. Conclusions are based on our own hands-on testing through the rig listed below, with the Spiritone as the only drive pedal in the chain. Its widely reported strength as a stacking pedal is noted where relevant, but was not tested by us.
What is the Spiritone?
The Spiritone starts where Char’s Centaur left off, borrows the boost behaviour of the CE-1 and the Watkins Copicat, and lands as a drive you could build a board around. It is the signature pedal of the Japanese guitarist Char (Hisato Takenaka), developed over roughly a year of collaboration with Vemuram. According to Vemuram, the starting point was Char’s personal Klon Centaur, studied alongside several Centaurs from the company’s own collection. Development reportedly included Char gigging the prototypes live and feeding back from the stage, and two emerged between which he could not choose, so both went into production. Notably, Vemuram states the two circuits are almost identical, with the tonal difference coming from the tuning of components and constants rather than a separate design. The A channel is voiced warm and vintage with smooth saturation, while the B channel, short for bright channel, is punchier and more aggressive. It has its own level knob and footswitch, but it still shares the pedal’s gain and equalisation.
Children of the korn
The review is based on two separate test sessions. The main listening impressions come from the following rig.
- 2007 Gibson Dave Grohl DG-335
- Strymon BigSky
- 1959 Fender Vibrolux 5F11
The signal chain ran from the DG-335 into the Spiritone, then into the BigSky, and finally into the Vibrolux. The Spiritone was the only drive pedal used in the chain, so no stacking with other drives took place.
A separate comparison session used the following.
- Macmull S-Classic (single-coil S-style, rosewood neck)
- Warm Audio Centavo
- J. Rockett Archer
- Nordvang Custom No.1 (original version)
- Morgan Amps 1×12 combo
In that session we ran the Spiritone against the Centavo and the Archer with settings matched as closely as each pedal’s controls allowed, and against the Nordvang as a straight A/B, using the Macmull into the Morgan 1×12. The SAT trimmer sat at its factory setting throughout, apart from the range mapping described in the controls section. A later stacking session added a DryBell Unit67 in front of the Spiritone and a DryBell The Engine after it, covering both stacking directions
We bought the Spiritone review unit with our own money at full retail price, 17,900 baht, from Strings Shop in Bangkok. The Nordvang Custom No.1 is our own pedal too, bought with our own money, and it has sat in our rig for quite some time. No manufacturer, distributor, or dealer had any involvement in or approval over this review. Testing took place in July 2026.
First impressions
We should say upfront that the Spiritone had eight months to work on us before this review. We first met it in November 2025 at Strings Shop in Bangkok, where it caught our eye from shelves holding what must be three hundred pedals. We spent an hour with it that day, taken by the sound, the response, and the looks, and could hardly put it down. We still walked out without it, regretted that almost immediately, and went home to read every review we could find. Eight months later, back in Bangkok, we went straight to Strings Shop knowing exactly why. A pedal that stays in your head that long has already told you something, and this time it came home with us. That first hour is not part of the test record, everything in this review comes from the July 2026 sessions, but it explains why this particular pedal ended up on the bench.
The Spiritone announces its price point before it makes a sound. Vemuram says the Spiritone was designed for the joy of ownership as much as for its sound, and it shows. On looks alone, the Spiritone is one of the most beautiful overdrive pedals we have seen. Four ash white Bakelite knobs and a single deep red knob for the B channel sit on a dark face that fades into polished brass at the edges, and the combination gives it a presence few painted aluminium boxes can match. The enclosure is heavy and substantial at 815 g, the knobs turn with a smooth, damped feel, and the finish is up to the standard Vemuram is known for. The footprint is the first practical consideration. At 157 mm wide, this is a large pedal by modern standards, and it will dominate a small board. Build quality gave us nothing to criticise.
How do the controls behave?
Every control on the Spiritone earns its place, though they carry unequal weight, and the Gain, the SAT trimmer, and the B channel level shape the pedal’s character most.
The Gain control rewards patience. It behaves less like a distortion dial and more like a thickness control, working in step with the output level. Set low, the drive never quite takes shape. Push it beyond the halfway mark, and the pedal finds its voice, filling out with the layered overtones the brand is known for.
The SAT trimmer is one of the most consequential controls on the pedal. Vemuram describes its purpose as fine-tuning a saturation modelled on the power tubes of a valve amplifier, adjustable to suit different gear combinations and venues, and that matches how it behaves.
Around its middle range, the feel drifts towards the thicker, more harmonically active response of pedals like the Mythos Mjolnir. Wound down, it tightens up towards the cleaner, more restrained feel of the Klon KTR and other faithful replicas. Wound fully up, the sound loses composure, with added compression and saturation reducing definition, and we found little practical use for the top of the range. Beyond that mapping, every other impression in this review, including the comparisons, was formed with the SAT at its factory setting, which we found well judged and had no urge to move away from.
The B channel is engaged with its own footswitch and governed by the Level B-ch knob on the far left. Raising that level also drives the shared gain structure harder, so volume and saturation increase together. The B channel has no independent gain control.
The two-band EQ is unusually effective for a Klon-derived pedal. Small movements change the character noticeably, and both controls stay musical across the ranges we used. The Treble brightens without turning brittle, keeping the top end refined as it comes up, and the Bass adds thickness while holding definition, with no drift into mud. The buffer is the quietest control on the pedal. Switching it on made very little audible difference in our chain, and we regard it as insurance for long cable runs and heavily loaded boards rather than a tone shaper. Owner reports we have read reach the same conclusions on all three counts.
What does the pedal sound like?
The Spiritone is a coloured, midrange-forward, low- to medium-gain overdrive with unusually dense harmonics. Even with the gain rolled fully down, engaging the pedal brings in a familiar Klon-style midrange lift, but the character on top is pure Vemuram, richer in harmonics than the original circuit ever was.
What struck us most was the dynamic response. The Spiritone follows picking strength with real precision, and it delivers just the right amount of bite, enough to give notes an edge without hardening the tone. That balance of bite and warmth is what lifts it from a good drive to a genuinely great one.
Vemuram and several retailers describe the Spiritone as a medium-gain overdrive, and low to medium gain is a fair label. Used on its own it lives in the lower half of that range, producing a strong, textured vintage drive at its upper settings without ever reaching into high-gain territory.
In short, the Spiritone pairs outstanding dynamics with dense harmonics, sits in the lower half of its medium-gain billing, and was the most open-sounding of the Klon pedals we compared.
Is the Spiritone transparent?
You will meet the word transparent in half the coverage of this pedal, and we are not going to use it. In 25 years of gear obsession we have rarely met two players who mean quite the same thing by it. For some it means the pedal leaves the EQ alone, for others it means it responds to their fingers, and for a fair few it seems to mean they like the pedal. So we will skip the label and tell you what we actually heard.
The Spiritone has a voice of its own. The Klon-style midrange lift is present even with the gain at zero, and the pedal adds a recognisable harmonic texture rather than simply enlarging the sound entering it. If the Jan Ray is Vemuram’s more neutral drive, the Spiritone is its coloured one. Worth noting, Vemuram never calls the pedal transparent either, its own description speaks of a versatile medium-gain drive with vintage tone and feel, so the label floating around comes from dealers and players, not the maker.
What we can report instead is how it behaved on the bench. In our matched comparison against the Warm Audio Centavo and the J. Rockett Archer, with the single-coil Macmull into the Morgan 1×12, the Spiritone was the most open-sounding of the three, and its response to picking strength set it apart. Whichever way we matched the settings, it kept sounding better and more inspiring to play, and the difference was dynamic range.
Put simply, the Spiritone colours your sound and answers your hands. Whether you call that transparent is your business. We call it a pedal with a voice worth having.
How different are the two channels?
The A and B channels of the Spiritone are distinct, but they do not function as separate overdrive circuits. Vemuram describes the B channel as brighter, more aggressive, and punchier, and we found that broadly accurate, but the two voices remain closely related because they share the Gain, Treble, Bass, and SAT settings. The B channel, therefore, acts as a hotter second mode rather than a fully independent second channel, which is consistent with Vemuram’s own account of the two circuits as almost identical, differing in component tuning rather than design. A dedicated B channel gain control would have made the pedal considerably more flexible, though the one-knob approach does keep things simple on a dark stage. Owner reports add a practical note here, the B channel’s output runs high enough that some players find little use for it at domestic volumes, while the A channel stays easy to manage on home amplifiers. That squares with the shared-gain behaviour we describe, since raising the B level adds drive as well as loudness.
Overall, the B channel is a footswitchable hotter mode of the same voice, not a second independent overdrive.
Does the Spiritone work well on its own?
Used alone, the Spiritone tops out at a rich, textured vintage drive and goes no further. With the gain maxed and the B channel engaged, it remains articulate and dynamic, but players seeking thick distortion or compressed sustain will need another gain stage. Published player impressions are mixed here. Some owners describe it as their preferred Klon-derived drive on its own, while others find it slightly stiff by itself and prefer it as a boost, and a detailed owner comparison against an original Centaur reports that the Spiritone alone supplies only light overdrive and will not reach Char’s promotional tones without a driven amplifier or another gain stage in the chain. Our own testing covered it solely as the single drive in the chain, and in that role it delivered a dynamic, articulate low-gain voice we enjoyed, within the gain ceiling described above.
Our platform testing covered two pickup types across two amplifiers, a humbucker semi-hollow into a tweed-style valve amp and a single-coil S-style into a Morgan 1×12, and the pedal sounded absolutely great with both. The dynamic response and harmonic character we describe held whichever guitar we picked up, and neither pickup type exposed a weakness. We have not tested it into a mid-forward British-style platform, so that combination remains unverified by us.
In practice, the Spiritone works well alone as a dynamic low-gain drive, but it will not go beyond that ceiling without help.
Is the Spiritone a good stacking pedal?
Yes. We tested it stacked in both directions, with a DryBell Unit67 in front of the Spiritone and a DryBell The Engine after it, and it handled both placements superbly.
The two placements covered the roles players ask about. The Unit67 put the Spiritone on the receiving end of boost and compression. The Engine put it in the pushing role, driving a British-voiced gain stage, the job owners have long described using it for into amplifiers.
That lands where the published record pointed all along. Owners describe successful lead-boost pairings with the Vemuram TSV808, the Jan Ray, the Shanks ODS-1, and Rat-style pedals, one Japanese review characterises it as a pushing device that brings out the best in an amplifier, and several owners note how naturally it blends with other Vemuram pedals on the same board. The design logic explains why. A midrange-forward voice is well suited to pushing a following gain stage, the harmonic density keeps a combined sound from thinning, and the B channel offers a footswitchable step-up in level and drive without another pedal.
In short, the reports were right, the Spiritone stacks superbly, and this is no longer a gap in the review.
How does it compare with the closest alternatives?
A note on the basis first. The Warm Audio Centavo and J. Rockett Archer comparisons come from our own matched testing, run with the single-coil Macmull into a Morgan 1×12 with settings matched as closely as each pedal’s controls allowed, and an A/B test against the Nordvang Custom No.1 sits on the same first-hand basis. The KTR comparison draws on prior hands-on experience with both pedals, while the Tumnus Deluxe and King of Tone comparisons draw on their published characteristics and our knowledge of the category rather than matched same-session testing. Against the original Klon Centaur, the pedal’s stated starting point, we can only compare indirectly. We have not tested this unit alongside a Centaur, so the KTR is our nearest available reference. A detailed published owner comparison against an original silver Centaur supports that indirect picture, reporting that the Spiritone can be dialled towards the Centaur but remains distinguishable, sounding more compressed and concentrated where the original is wider and more polished, and judging the Spiritone closer in tendency to the KTR than to the Centaur itself. That broadly aligns with our own reading of the pedal’s character.
| Pedal | Circuit family | Channels and controls | Typical price, July 2026 | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vemuram Spiritone | Klon-derived, Char signature | Two voices sharing Gain, Bass, Treble, and SAT, with a main Level, a B channel level, and a footswitch each | New street, around $540 US, €460 to €560 EU | A coloured low-gain drive with a footswitchable hotter mode |
| Klon KTR | Klon, Bill Finnegan production | Single channel, Gain, Treble, Output, switchable buffered or true bypass | New, limited availability, recent listings around $659, used higher | The faithful Klon reference |
| Warm Audio Centavo | Klon recreation | Single channel, Gain, Treble, Output, rear Mod switch extending bass | New street, around $180 | The affordable faithful big-box Centaur experience |
| J. Rockett Archer | Klon family | Single channel, Volume, Treble, Gain | New street, around $200 | A robust, cleaner-voiced Klon-style boost |
| Nordvang Custom No.1 (original) | Klon-derived, Danish hand-built | Single channel with expanded control options | Discontinued 2020, used market only, the Signature successor sells new around $300 | A refined high-end Klon take, the closest rival we compared |
| Wampler Tumnus Deluxe | Klon-derived | Single channel with a three-band EQ and a hot switch | New street, around $200 | The Klon flavour at compact size and price |
| Vemuram Jan Ray | Blackface-style, neutral-leaning drive | Single channel, Volume, Gain, Bass, Treble, saturation trimmer | New, from around $379 | Vemuram’s most neutral voice |
| Analogman King of Tone | Bluesbreaker family | Two genuinely independent channels | Direct, around $285 with a long waiting list, secondary far higher | A premium dual-channel drive with true channel independence |
Prices are indicative street or direct figures at the date of writing and vary by region and availability, and they are not directly comparable because availability differs between brands.
We would choose the Spiritone over a Klon KTR when we want more harmonic density, a coloured voice, and two footswitchable levels, but we would choose the KTR when compact size and a more faithful, restrained Klon response matter more.
The matched test produced our clearest comparative finding. Against both the Centavo and the Archer, whichever way we matched the settings, we kept preferring the Spiritone, and the reason was dynamic range. It responded to picking in a way neither rival matched, and it was simply more inspiring to play. Both rivals remain excellent value all the same, the Centavo is the affordable route to a faithful big-box Centaur experience, and the Archer is a proven, solidly built take with a cleaner boost character. We would choose either over the Spiritone on budget alone, and the Spiritone over both on feel.
We also ran the Spiritone A/B against the Nordvang Custom No.1 in its original version, the Danish hand-built refinement of the Klon circuit produced from 2014 to 2020 and since succeeded by the more strictly faithful No.1 Signature. This is the comparison we can speak to with the most familiarity, the Nordvang is our own pedal and has sat in our rig for quite some time. The original carries a strong reputation at the high end of the family. It deserves that reputation. It is a superb-sounding pedal, and of everything we compared, it ran the Spiritone closest. Yet we kept circling back to the Spiritone. The margin was not tone so much as feel, the same dynamic openness that separated it from the Centavo and the Archer, and something about the way it kept inviting us to play. Between these two the decision is genuinely close, and price will settle it for many players, but ours went to the Spiritone.
Against the Wampler Tumnus Deluxe, the responsible comparison rests on published specifications and construction. The Spiritone sits clearly higher on build standard and materials, while the Tumnus wins decisively on price and board space, and it remains the sensible choice for anyone who simply wants the Klon flavour without the boutique premium. The harmonic density and dynamics we describe elsewhere in this review are qualities we verified in the Spiritone alone. We have not run the two pedals side by side.
Against the Analogman King of Tone, the comparison is really about the voicing family. Both are premium dual-channel drives at a similar level of ambition, but the King of Tone works in Bluesbreaker territory, where the Spiritone works in Klon territory, so the choice follows the midrange character a player is after, with the King of Tone offering more genuinely independent channels.
Within Vemuram’s own range, the Jan Ray remains the pick for players who want the brand’s most neutral voice, while the Spiritone is the pick for players who want its colour.
There are comparisons we would have liked to run and could not, because we did not have access to the pedals at the time of testing. The Decibelics Golden Horse is widely praised as one of the most faithful component-level Klon recreations, in an ultra-compact enclosure that would have made a telling contrast with the Spiritone’s footprint. The Ceriatone Centura is the hand-wired big-box replica many players treat as the authentic blueprint, at roughly half the Spiritone’s price. And a genuinely independent dual drive such as the KingTone Duellist, where each side carries its own full control set, would show most clearly what the Spiritone’s shared gain and EQ give up. All three carry strong reputations among players, and we note them here both as honest gaps and as candidates for future matched testing.
Is the Spiritone good value?
We consider the Spiritone good value only for players who will actually use what differentiates it, the harmonic density, the dynamics, and the second footswitchable level. At around $540, it sits at the expensive end of the overdrive market, and the limited independence of the B channel weakens the case for replacing two separate pedals. It does more than a basic Klon replica, but it enters a crowded category full of smaller, cheaper alternatives that cover the core job.
Japanese domestic pricing adds useful context. The Spiritone retails at 59,840 yen including tax at home, and one owner there frames the value question well, an original Centaur now commands between five hundred thousand and one million yen, so sixty thousand yen for a serious take on the circuit family reads as reasonable rather than extravagant.
The bottom line is that it offers good value for players who will use its harmonics, dynamics, and second level, and poor value for anyone who only needs the core Klon job.
Who is it for, and who is it not for?
The Spiritone is best for low-gain and vintage-voiced players who build their drive sound in stages and want a firmer rhythm setting and a brighter, louder lead mode in a single enclosure. On the strength of published reports and its design rather than our own stacking test, it also suits dedicated stackers and players who push another pedal or an amplifier. And it suits Klon-curious players who find faithful Centaur replicas slightly restrained, since it keeps that family’s midrange focus while adding harmonic complexity.
It is not the right pedal for players who need high gain from a single box. It will not satisfy anyone who wants two independently adjustable channels, because the voices share Gain, Bass, Treble, and SAT. It is a poor fit for a tightly packed board at 157 mm wide and 815 g. And players seeking the closest possible Klon reproduction at the lowest cost should look at compact alternatives such as the Tumnus instead.
Verdict
We recommend the Spiritone for players who already respond to Vemuram’s voice and want a coloured, dynamic, low- to medium-gain drive in a Klon-flavoured, dual-channel format, provided that they do not need high gain or true channel independence from a single box. Its greatest verified strength is its dynamic response, which followed our picking with real precision, delivered bite without hardness, and carried it past the Warm Audio Centavo and J. Rockett Archer in our matched comparison, with a closer A/B against the Nordvang Custom No.1 landing the same way.
Its strength as a stacking pedal, long reported by owners, held up in our own tests. We would choose a compact faithful replica instead when the decision is led by board space, neutrality, or budget. For committed Vemuram players it slots straight into the family. For everyone else, its size, shared controls, and premium price make it a pedal worth auditioning before committing.
Specifications and current pricing
| Effect type | Dual-channel overdrive |
| Controls | Level B-ch, Gain, Bass, Treble, Level (left to right), SAT trimmer, buffer on/off |
| Footswitches | Bypass, B channel |
| Bypass | Selectable true bypass or buffered bypass per two independent retailers, not stated in Vemuram’s own documentation, unconfirmed by us |
| Power | 9V, centre negative, 006P battery or adapter per Vemuram’s specification, current draw 21 mA per Vemuram, 28 mA in most dealer listings, 17 mA in one retailer’s in-house measurement |
| Enclosure | Brass |
| Knobs | Ash white Bakelite, with a deep red B channel knob |
| Dimensions | 157 x 103 x 53 mm (retailer heights vary from 50 to 57 mm, apparently depending on whether the knobs are included) |
| Weight | 815 g |
| Components | Custom footswitches, jacks, and capacitors, selected NOS parts |
| Country of manufacture | Japan |
| Street price | Around $540 US, €460 to €560 EU, DKK 4,199 in Denmark, ¥59,840 in Japan, sale and standard retail mixed |
| Confirmed purchase price | 17,900 baht, full retail, Strings Shop Bangkok, July 2026 |
| Pricing checked | July 2026 |
Vemuram notes that NOS component supply may lead to circuit revisions without notice, and goes further, stating that sales may be suspended or ended entirely if sound quality cannot be maintained with alternative components. Buyers should treat the Spiritone as a pedal with no guaranteed production future.
Written by Nico von Cotta, Vintage & Rare
Nico von Cotta founded Vintage & Rare in 2008 and has spent more than 25 years making music as a guitarist, songwriter, and producer. He remains a thoroughly committed gear nerd. Keepers is about the pieces that, for one reason or another, never quite left the shelf. Every review is based on hands-on testing. We usually buy the gear ourselves, and when a company supplies a test sample, we disclose it in the review.